HMM Newsletter - No. 13, 1997 ISSN 1036-3041

Conference Chatter The 1997 Museums Australia Conference was held in sunny Darwin in September. As might have been expected, very few HMM members were able to attend. Our members are mostly volunteer workers in small museums and attending a Museums Australia conference anywhere is an expensive exercise. Nevertheless a very lively combined session was held for the Health and Medicine Museums SIG and the newly-formed Community and Specialist Museums SIG. Stimulating papers were presented by Jenny Garton Smith (curator at the Subiaco Museum, Perth), Brian Manns (of the Army History Unit) and our own Allison Bartlett (of the Harry Daly Museum at the Australian Society of Anaesthetists in Sydney). The audience thought that Allison's paper, on how she and Dr Richard Bailey are turning the Society's collection into a museum, was inspirational. [Incidentally, Allison has recently been co-opted as a member of the HMM National Committee. She has also agreed to be co-editor of this newsletter. Some people just don't know when to say no. But thanks, Allison. You will be an asset to the team.] It is expected that the conference proceedings will be published soon. Look out for the three papers mentioned above as well as comments by the session's chairperson, Megan Hicks, on the discussion that followed and her thoughts on whether the Museums Australia Conference in its present form is useful for custodians of small museums. Congratulations to the Community and Specialist Museums SIG (let's refer to them as CASM), who held their inaugural meeting at the MA Conference. We expect that HMM and CASM will have many issues in common. CASM published the first issue of their newsletter, Community News, in December 1997. Membership of the CASM SIG is free. Enquiries to their secretary, Brian Manns, Army History Unit, CP2-5-10, Department of Defence, Canberra, ACT 2600 email: bmanns@gs.army.defence.gov.au. For Megan Hicks, your HMM secretary, and Zöe McKenzie Smith, convenor of CASM, one of the highlights of the conference week was a one-day trip to Arnhem Land. Their exploits have been much embellished in the telling and involve crossing the vast expanses of Kakadu in a rented four-wheel drive, fording a crocodile-infested river, and braving thirst, sand and corrugations. The purpose of the trip was a pre-arranged visit to Injalak Arts and Crafts at Oenpelli to purchase a marvellous painting 'Cough Dreaming' by Thomson Yulidjirri for the Powerhouse Museum's health and medicine collection. There will be no MA Conference in 1998. Efforts will be directed instead to the ICOM Conference in Melbourne in October. In 1999 the MA Conference will be held in Albury. Megan Hicks